Thursday evening is TV night in North America and the networks filled the night with a long list of debuts from every genre of television. The crowded field made for tight competition among most of the shows on the social web. Here was the line up:

• FOX – Did not air a season or series debut
• NBC – Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office, Whitney, Prime Suspect
• ABC – Charlie’s Angels, Grey’s Anatomy
• CBS – The Big Bang Theory, Person of Interest, The Mentalist

The majority of the social conversations related to Thursday’s premieres revolved around two shows: NBC’s The Office and CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. Both shows left their fans on cliffhangers last season and conversations throughout the day were driven by gossip related to what happened between Penny and Raj on The Big Bang Theory and who was going to replace Michael Scott on The Office.

ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy and NBC’s Parks and Recreation and series premiere Whitney rounded out the top five shows driving conversations on the social web.

Prime Time Trends:

Similar to Tuesday evening there was one show that dominated the social conversations during Thursday’s premieres. CBS’ The Big Bang Theory more then doubled the social conversations of The Office which ranked second. During the airing of The Big Bang Theory actor Kunal Nayyar who plays Raj Koothrappoli was live tweeting with fans discussing the plot of the show as it progressed as well as his experiences on the show in general. This drove a lot of the conversation during the premiere.

There was one very interesting data point that emerged on this graph pertaining to NBC’s Parks and Recreation. At 1 pm EST actor Aziz Ansari who plays Tom Haverford on Parks and Recreation tweeted to his fan base to remind them to tune into the season premiere and gave a teaser pertaining to this character. The 1pm EST spike was driving by re-tweets of Ansari’s reminder.

Thursday’s trend data gives some insights into the influence the actors have on promoting their shows.

Post-Premiere Conversations:

Compared to Tuesday and Wednesday’s premiers, there was less overall volume pertaining to Thursday’s premieres. NBC’s The Office overtook CBS’ The Big Bang Theory is post-premiere resonance as fans discussed their impressions of the long await reveal of Michael Scott’s replacement.

Total volume in conversations the following day dropped but NBC’s The Office saw the smallest drop in conversations, losing about 1000 in total volume from Thursday to Friday.

Personally, I was impressed with the influence both Kunal Nayyar and Aziz Ansari had promoting their respective shows. I wonder how the prime time numbers for Parks and Recreation would have been influenced had Aziz Ansari tweeted his reminder to his followers closer to the shows prime time airing. What do you think?